Objects in the Mirror Appear Closer Than They Are
by Sultan Peppershaker
Summary: Whenever you think you know somebody, something always happens to let you know that suspicion is false. Rated for language, violence.


**Okay, guys, I'm back. But, the thing is, this story doesn't entirely fit into the realm of the world that I've created with my stories. So, consider this an Alternate Universe story, as they are so eloquently referred to.

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Olivia Skeffington sat in front of her desktop mirror, fixing her hair. It was Friday evening, and she planned on spending it with her best friend, Kenneth Gramm. She had known Kenny for many years. The two had grown closer in those seven years than most siblings do in their entire lives.

Olivia, or Via as she preferred to be called, lived in the town of Brighton, England. Brighton was just over 50 miles south of London. Via was only 16 years old when she walked outside on that clear spring day.

_**The skies were pure and the fields were green,  
And the sun was brighter than it's ever been  
When I grew up with my best friend, Kenny,  
We were close as any brothers that you ever knew**_

"I'll be back at six, mum," Via called out as she walked out her house. Via and her parents had always been close. Of course, they had to be, to a certain extent. Since Via's father was in the military, she had to move often. Because of that, Via never really made too many close friends. The only reason she knew Kenny so well was because her father was stationed in London for a while, so it was possible for her and her mother to live where Via was born; Brighton.

It was a quiet walk to Kenny's house, despite the fact that it was a long one. It was almost completely silent, except for the passing ambulance shortly after she left her house, and the children playing in a family friend's yard.

The best word Via could think of to describe her relationship with Kenny was _complicated. _On a few rare occasions, Via had caught herself wondering what it would be like to be his girlfriend. He was handsome; she couldn't speak out against that. He also did know her quite well. However, whenever she got those feelings, they were usually fleeting, and never lasted more than a week at a time.

Nevertheless, whether Via wanted to be in a romantic relationship with him or not, she knew that he was always there for her. He always listened to her when she had a problem; he always said the right thing to cheer her up; he knew her inside and out.

_**It was always summer and the future called  
We were ready for adventures and we wanted them all,  
And there was so much left to dream,  
And so much time to make it real**_

That was what Via liked the most about him. Which is why she was unsure if she would want to pursue a romantic relationship with him. If it ended badly, she didn't want to lose a good friend in the process. And yet she felt that there could be chemistry between the two of them. She usually decided that the risk wasn't quite worth taking, although she had nearly talked herself into going after him on a few occasions.

She couldn't quite tell if he wanted to go out with her, though. That was the biggest problem. He'd always covered his feelings up rather well. This was what made Via so apprehensive to go after him. Whenever she would get those feelings for him, his lack of commitment was generally the thing to hold her back.

Any day, she figured.

Any day, she might just snap and ask him how he felt about her.

_Today might even be that day… who knows?_ Via wondered to herself. Not entirely paying attention to her surroundings, she went up to the front door of Kenny's house, and knocked a few times.

When nobody answered, she knocked harder.

_**But I can still recall the sting of all the tears when he was gone  
They say he crashed and burned, I know I'll never learn,  
Why any boy should die so young**_

Two paramedics came out of Kenny's house with a stretcher, a corpse covered by a sheet lying on it. Hanging from the side of the stretcher, Via could see a lifeless arm. The one time she prayed she wouldn't see that ring, her prayers weren't answered. The ring Kenny had habitually worn since Via's fourteenth birthday was around the finger of the now-dead person beneath the sheet.

Via's jaw quivered as the doors to the ambulance shut and the vehicle drove down the street. She stared after it until it turned a corner out of sight. Then, she broke down and cried.

Kenny's mother, Mrs. Gramm, must have heard this, as she came running out to the front step. Taking a quick look around, she saw Via on her knees sobbing. Whispering softly to her, she pulled her to her feet.

Via didn't even hear what she was saying, though. Her mind was two years behind.

"_Happy birthday, Via," Kenny said, smiling. In his hands was a small gift-wrapped box._

"_Oh, you remembered," she smiled, taking the box from his outstretched hands and sitting down._

"_I couldn't possibly forget. Not with you reminding me every day for the past six weeks," he added, a smile on his face._

"_It worked, didn't it?" Via shot back. Untying the ribbon and tossing it aside, she opened up the box. In it was a pair of… "Rings," she said, smiling. Looking up at him, she added, "What for?"_

"_So we can remember each other," he said, looking down and rubbing the base of his neck. "You keep one, I keep the other… so we'll have something to remember each other by, even if we're apart."_

_Via smiled. "That's so sweet," she smiled. Turning towards him, it took most every ounce of strength she had not to kiss him there. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug._

"How did it happen?" Via blurted out, interrupting Mrs. Gramm.

She seemed a bit surprised at this, either because she was so caught up in what she was saying, or she didn't expect Via to speak at all. "They… the paramedics seem to think it was a drug overdose…"

Via sighed. She didn't want to be in this house anymore. Suddenly she felt that if she stayed any longer, something weird was going to happen.

"I think I'd like to go back home, if you don't mind," she said as politely as she could.

"Oh, go right ahead dear," Kenny's mother said, walking Via to the door. "Anything to help you deal with this… just remember that your parents are here to talk to you… and so am I…"

Via nodded, and hurried back to her house.

_**We were racing; we were soldiers of fortune  
We got in trouble but we sure got around  
There are times I think I see him peeling out of the dark  
I think he's right behind me now, and he's gaining ground**_

"Via?" her mother asked when she heard the door open. However, by the time she had asked this, Via was already halfway to her room, and had no intentions of talking to her mother about this.

She couldn't believe it. They thought it was a drug overdose… she never knew Kenny even did drugs… she thought she knew everything about him…

What was a scarier thought was that maybe he didn't do drugs. Maybe he just wanted to get out of life because of so many different factors… she didn't know which thought was worse to her.

She cried for a good hour and a half in her room, and she didn't make any attempts to cover that fact up. She was dying on the inside, and didn't care who knew it.

Whether she stopped because her eyes were dry, or that her emotions had calmed down, she eventually stopped crying. But the departure of one emotion only lead to the arrival of another. She now began to grow frustrated and angry. Why did she have to be going through this? Why did that have to happen to Kenny? Why would somebody die so young like that? Why was life so unfair? Her frustration and anger even led to her trashing half of her room.

After throwing a group of books from her dresser to the ground, Via finally calmed down again. She sobbed, leaned with her back against the wall, and slid to the ground, hugging her legs tightly.

After a few minutes of silence, Via's mother came into the room to comfort her. Via was far too burnt out to protest to any comfort, so she merely hugged her mother, and told her what she had seen and learned.

_**But it was long ago, and it was far away  
Oh God, it seems so very far,  
And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car**_

At Kenny's funeral, Via gave the eulogy, and delivered a powerful epitaph she had written in his honor. Kenny was buried with the ring he had given Via.

The official report from the coroner claimed that the cause of death was an intentional overdose of several different types of drugs.

Via couldn't see any reason why Kenny would have wanted to commit suicide. It seemed to her that he had a great life. The thing that bothered her the most was that she never knew how much help he had needed. All the times she could've talked to him, she could've helped him with any problems he was having.

Instead, though, she just let him slowly slip away. She never knew until it was far too late for him. That's what haunted Via. She thought she knew him better than he knew himself… but she never suspected he would do something so drastic.

Every year, Via took the time out on that mid-spring day to just wander around town, letting her mind wander wherever it chose.

_**And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
They are**_

Keely Teslow was the only child of Dave and Mandy Teslow. When Keely was very young, her mother died due to leukemia. Keely didn't have any distinct memories of being with her mother. She would vaguely remember a few random events, but that was about it. All she knew was that she was happy with her mom.

So now she lived alone with her father. Whenever he was home, Keely was usually at school. Whenever Keely was home, her father was usually working. Or he was out drinking. Keely didn't like that her father was an alcoholic, but at least she didn't have to put up with him when he was gone. That was the only positive part about it.

Keely would make a habit of being in her bed before eleven o'clock.

_**And when the sun descended and the night arose  
I heard my father cursing everyone he knows  
He was dangerous and drunk and defeated,  
And corroded by failure and envy and hate**_

Her father usually came in the front door at about eleven. Since Keely never knew if he'd been out drinking or not, she'd try to make sure she was in bed before he opened the door. He was bad enough when he was sober, but Keely feared him the most when he was wasted.

Everything Keely did seemed to disappoint her father. It didn't matter how hard she tried to please him; he was never impressed by her. She was always doing something wrong… she was always disgracing the family name…

That's why she feared her dad when he was drunk. When he was sober, it usually wouldn't go past yelling. A few times, he'd called her a complete failure, a total disappointment, but things didn't tend to escalate much further than that.

But when he was drunk…

That's when the monster broke loose.

Things escalated rather quickly when he had been drinking. And things went much further beyond the realm of yelling. Keely couldn't even count the number of names she'd been called. He often referred to her as a slut, or something along those lines. He'd often compare her to her mother, or, more commonly, to prostitutes making a living in Vegas.

And even then, just being in bed when he came home didn't give any reassurance if he was drunk. If he wanted to talk to her, he _would_ talk to her, regardless of what she was doing. Sometimes, she'd be woken up by him shouting at her to get herself out of bed. Other times, he's simply yank the sheets off of her bed.

_**There were endless winters and the dreams would freeze  
No where to hide and no leaves on the trees,  
And my father's eyes were blank as he hit me again and again and again**_

And if he was wasted… after the yelling, the hitting would soon follow.

Her father didn't seem to show any remorse as he rained blows down on her. Sometimes he'd simply slap her around, sometimes she'd get his belt… sometimes he'd even kick her a bit.

So, when 18-year-old Keely Teslow heard her father open the door, grumbling loudly, on one spring night, she feared something bad would happen. She pretended to be asleep; that was her only hope.

There was a long, tense silence as she lay with her eyes shut. Then, to her horror, she heard footsteps come slowly shuffling up the stairs.

"Keely…" her father grumbled.

Keely thought quickly. She wondered if he'd treat her worse if she didn't respond to him at first. Deciding that maybe he wouldn't be as hard on her if she answered him, she tentatively called out, "Dad?"

"I want to talk to you…" he growled, standing outside her bedroom door.

Keely gathered her courage, let out a quivering breath, and got out of bed. She opened the door to see her father standing at the end of the hallway, a paper in his hands.

"I got your grades today, Keely," he said. Keely's stomach plummeted to her feet at the sound of that. She had shredded the grades that the school had sent home… How did he get his hands on a copy of them?

"They were supposed to arrive a few days ago… so when I didn't get any, I figured they got lost in the mail…" he explained, as if reading her mind. That freaked her out… it was as if he could sense what she was thinking…

"Keely, these are terrible," he said. Keely never felt more frightened…

He wasn't raising his voice. He wasn't shouting… that's why she was so scared.

"Dad, I tri-"

"You didn't try hard enough!" he cut her off, shouting a bit for the first time that night. "If you can't even do well in school, how do you expect to end up as a success in life?"

"Daddy, I--"

"I don't want to hear it! If you keep failing now, you'll _always_ be a failure! Why can't you understand that?"

"Daddy, I do---" Keely started.

"No, you don't! You'll never get it, Keely! You don't get it now, and you won't get it when you're out on the street without a job or a place to live, just selling yourself out to anybody who has a bit of money!"

"Please, Daddy, I really--"

"I don't want to hear it!" her father shouted at her. He reached out and shoved her up against the wall. "You're useless, Keely. You always will be." He threw her against another wall, and slowly mounted the stairs to go to his bedroom. Keely just sat there against the wall, until she heard him snoring.

Then, she slowly crept into the garage, picked up the largest suitcase she could find, and carried it into her room.

_**I know I still believe he'd never let me leave, I had to run away alone  
So many threats and fears, so many wasted years,  
Before my life became my own**_

Ever so slowly, as quietly as she good, she slid open her window. Luckily, she had taken off the screen last week, so she could easily and quietly sneak out. Forming a rope with her bed sheets, she lowered the suitcase to the ground. Without making a sound, she slowly lowered herself onto a tree adjacent to the house, and climbed to the ground.

She was in her pajamas, flip-flops, and didn't care who knew it. She walked away from 15 Dorset Way without even turning back.

When she was turning onto Salerno Lane, she realized that she had no idea where she was going to go. She didn't want to go to any of her friends' houses. Though she couldn't think of a reason why she felt that way, it was just something her gut didn't want.

So, she just wandered down the street, trying to tell where she was. Navigating the town at night on foot was much different than it was in broad daylight in her climate-controlled Honda Civic.

A light came flooding the street from behind her. She turned back and saw a Cavalier driving towards her. She panicked. It pulled up next to her, and she was sure she was going to get the beating of her lifetime once she got dragged back home.

_**And though the nightmares should be over,  
Some of the terrors are still intact  
I'll hear that ugly, coarse, and violent voice,  
And then he grabs me from behind, and then he pulls me back**_

But when the window opened, it wasn't her father. "What are you doing outside at such a late hour?" the driver asked.

"I…" Keely sighed.

"Poor dear… you're bleeding!"

"I am?" Keely asked, a faint look of surprise on her face. The girl got out of the car and handed Keely a napkin.

"Where are you heading to?" the girl asked.

"Anywhere but home," Keely replied.

"Did your boyfriend do this to you?" the brunette asked.

"No… my father…"

"Oh… you poor thing… Tell you what: you can stay with me for a while."

"Oh, really?" Keely asked. "I don't want to be a bother…"

"Oh, dear, it wouldn't be any bother at all…"

"It's just that… I don't know what else to do… my mom isn't with us anymore, and I don't really have any friends that would let me stay with them…"

"I'm so sorry," the driver said, taking Keely's suitcase to the trunk. Popping open the trunk and sliding the suitcase inside, she added, "My father and I have always been close… My family is my best friend… but I suppose that's because we're always moving. You see, my father's in the Royal Navy…"

"That must be so hard for you," Keely muttered, climbing into the passenger's side. "To pick up and move so often…"

"It is… I used to have a really good friend, but… he's gone…"

"I'm sorry…" Keely muttered, seeing the misty look on the brunette's eyes.

"He… committed suicide… in fact, that's why I was driving around at this hour… I do this every year, you see. Just to… think back… and remember him…"

"Oh…"

_**But it was long ago, and it was far away  
Oh God, it seems so very far,  
And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car**_

"Has your father always been like this?"

"Yes," Keely replied, sadly. "I can kind of remember being happy when I was with my mother… but after she was gone… things were never the same. I can't imagine what compels him to act the way he does… I just want to get away from him…"

The two 18-year-olds sat in silence for the rest of the drive.

"We're here…" she muttered, as she pulled up to her apartment. Keely opened up the door, and fetched her suitcase from the trunk.

"Thanks for letting me stay with you…" Keely said.

"You're welcome… I may have to explain some of this to the doorman, though… could you wait a half-minute?"

Keely nodded, and the brunette walked over to the doorman.

"Good evening, Ms. Skeffington," he greeted, smiling…

_**And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
They are**_

Philip Diffy first crash-landed in the past in the year of 2004.

It wasn't until the fall of 2007 when he first met Julie Rickson.

It wasn't quite love at first sight for Phil, but he was quite taken by her when he first met her in his A/V Productions class. She was about his height, had shoulder-length brown hair, and tawny eyes. They became fast friends when he introduced himself to her.

_**There was a beauty living on the edge of town  
She always put the top up and the hammer down,  
And she taught me everything I'll ever know,  
About the mystery and the muscle of love**_

It came as somewhat of a surprise to Phil when Julie, or Julz, as he called her, was the first to open up and express her feelings for him. He'd known he had feelings for her for a long time, but he was completely oblivious to how she felt about him.

"_Phil… I think I'm falling for you…"_

Just those few words, and Phil felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

Before then, he never even knew what kind of impact words could have on a person.

_**The stars would glimmer and the moon would glow  
I'm in the back seat with my Julie like a Romeo  
And the signs along the highway all said  
Caution! Kids at play!**_

Phil didn't feel like anything could bring him down. He was with the girl he loved… that was all he needed. What more could he even want?

He even started to think that there was a reason his family had crash landed in the past. Maybe he was destined to meet and fall in love with Julie.

Julie knew he was from the future. She respected his decision not to tell anybody. She kept it a secret herself. He grew closer to Julie than he ever was with any of his friends in the future.

He felt like he really belonged, for the first time in his life.

_**Those were the rights of spring and we did everything;  
There was salvation every night  
We got dreams reborn and our upholstery torn,  
But everything we tried was right**_

With those seven simple words… Phil's life changed dramatically.

In fact, on that July night, when Phil and Julie were 19, Phil was feeling as if he could spend his whole life with her.

While they sat together on the couch, just talking, Phil was wondering how he could tell her that.

Thinking back to all the times they'd spent together, he figured she probably felt very strongly about him. Perhaps not to the extent that he felt about her, but he remained reasonably sure that she loved him deeply.

So, he gathered up his courage, and, after a brief silence fell in between the both of them, he admitted how in love he was with her.

"I… I don't want to make you feel awkward or anything, but I've even thought a few times of spending my life with you…"

"Oh… Phil…" she muttered, smiling at him. "That's so sweet…"

"I know this probably feels awkward for you, but I just wanted to let you know how I feel about you," Phil admitted.

"I thought it was sweet…" she whispered, kissing him on the cheek.

The two of them talked for a bulk of the night, until they grew tired. So, Phil laid out a blanket, which they lied on top of.

_**She used her body just like a bandage  
She used my body just like a wound  
I'll probably never know where she disappeared,  
But I can see her rising up out of the back seat now,  
Just like an angel rising up from a tomb**_

At about three in the morning, a branch tapping on the window woke Phil up. He found himself alone on the ground. Cracking his neck, he tried to remember what he was doing in the middle of the living room. He remembered when he saw a note addressed to him lying on a pillow on the blanket.

_Phil-_

_I'm sorry. I really owe you a real goodbye. But looking at you now, I just can't bear to wake you up. You look so peaceful lying there… I don't want to ruin our last night together by interrupting your dreams._

_Please know that this isn't your fault. But I have to leave… a mixture of different things have come up, and I just need to take time to find myself. You will probably never see me again. So just in case we don't, just know this; I've never had somebody in my life like you, and I probably never will. I don't want to leave, but I know I have to._

_Yours forever_

_Julie_

Phil read the note several times over. This couldn't be… he looked for a different letter shape than her normal handwriting, he turned the note over, he looked for any sign that it was some sort of forgery…

But it was 100 per cent real.

Julie was gone. He didn't even move an inch until he saw something fall onto the paper. Looking up at the ceiling, he realized it was his own tears staining the page.

_**But it was long ago, and it was far away  
Oh God, it seems so very far,  
And if life is just a highway, then the soul is just a car**_

He walked out into his apartment hallway, and took the elevator to the first floor. He got a drink from the vending machine, then sat down in a chair in the corner.

He sat in silence, thinking. How could this have happened? He loved her… he thought she had loved him…

_**And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are**_

But sometimes, what you see isn't what you get.

Phil finished his drink and tossed it into the trash. He got up, and called for the elevator.

Two rain-soaked girls about his age came rushing inside. He raised an eyebrow at them as they called to him to hold the elevator for them. He did so, and the two stepped into the elevator with him.

"Can I ask you two a question?" Phil opened.

"You just did," one of them said. "But you can ask another, if you'd like."

Phil smiled. "What were you two doing out in the rain at…" He consulted his watch. "Three-thirty in the morning?"

"Living in the moment," the other girl said. "What were you doing up so late?"

"…thinking…" Phil replied, dully.

"What about?"

"Why this girl just left me…"

The two girls gave him a sympathetic "Aww…"

"She just… left in the middle of the night. No goodbye… no final kiss… Just a note." He sighed as the elevator door opened, and the three of them stepped off.

_**And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are  
And objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are**_

"I'm so sorry… about three years ago, I lost somebody close to me…" the brunette confessed. "I know what it feels like… I loved him…"

"Oh yeah?" Phil asked. "Because it just felt like I was the only one that knew what this kind of thing felt like…"

"You're not…" the girl reassured him.

"Thanks," Phil said. Realizing he hadn't caught the girl's names, he gave them a prompting hand.

"Oh, I'm Olivia… you can call me Via though."

"And I'm Keely," the blonde added.

"Thanks, Via… Keely…"

"Come talk to us if you ever feel like you need it, okay?" Via asked.

"You got it," Phil said, nodding.

He went to open his apartment door when Keely called out, "What did you say your name was, again?"

"Didn't… I'm Phil, though."

"Goodnight, Phil," Keely said, smiling. Phil nodded back, went inside, and shut the door.

_**She used her body just like a bandage  
She used my body just like a wound  
I'll probably never know where she disappeared,  
But I can see her rising up out of the back seat now...

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**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Phil of the Future. I do not own "Objects In The Rearview Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" by Meat Loaf. I only own the original characters in this fic.**

**Okay, everybody. I want you to do two things. First, visit my profile page. I'm sure that some of you may be delighted to find a link at the top of it. Second, write me a review. Otherwise I'll be depressed.**


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